December 26, 2025
Michael McLoone/Imagn Images
Jared McCain has an unusual package of layups when he is contested around the rim.
For a 6-foot-3 guard without much vertical athleticism, there is no shot as fundamental and simple as a layup. Except, that is, for Jared McCain.
McCain is always going to be undersized and lack noticeable athleticism at the NBA level, but his struggles in his sophomore season have come as a result of the athletic deficiencies being heightened. McCain has made some strides in terms of mobility, but he is still trying to get back to the player he was before tearing his meniscus a year ago.
As the 21-year-old tries to find peak form again, he will not just rely on his excellent shooting touch, but also an unorthodox approach to finishing around the rim.
In this week's Friday film, McCain discusses his unique package of layups, plus thoughts on some members of the Sixers' frontcourt mix:
When he was going right in the opening weeks of his NBA career last year, McCain was not consistently blowing by people, but he had enough burst off the dribble to at least keep defenders honest. When he faced a significant disadvantage athletically, McCain would lean on his unusual package of layups.
McCain has an array of unique scoop shots that he can take at angles that most players will not shoot from:
Jared McCain is finding comfort again using his bumps and scoop shots at unusual angles: pic.twitter.com/V5eGVonnmM
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) December 21, 2025
McCain also keeps defenders guessing with "inside-hand layups," where he goes up for the layup with the hand closer to the basket. It has all been carefully crafted to help McCain overcome the weaknesses he would have at the NBA level.
Perhaps the most aggressive offensive possession of Jared McCain's second NBA season so far: pic.twitter.com/yg7WPcrVrA
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) December 8, 2025
After Monday's practice, McCain told the story of how he came to begin developing those awkward finishes.
"Playing up with my brother," McCain said. "I've always played up with him, and you've always got to find a way – he's five years older than me – and so [I always had to] find a way to score on him that wasn't a catch-and-shoot, because he always would just block my shot or steal the ball. I used to play this game with my dad and my brother – my dad would sit on the couch, me and my dad on the same team, my brother would play defense – so it was always like one-on-one against each other. It's kind of started from a young age, I've always played up, and just finding certain ways, certain angles to get to the rim and certain angles to finish at the rim."
Full audio of McCain's response over a compilation of his scoop shots and inside-hand layups below:
Have been asking Jared McCain about his weird finishing angles, inside-hand layups and scoop shots recently. On Monday, he told a great story about how all of that came to be part of his scoring arsenal. Put that audio over a handful of the plays I'm talking about.
— Adam Aaronson (@SixersAdam) December 25, 2025
Sound on! pic.twitter.com/L1ck29NNte
If things are going well for McCain, he is getting downhill enough to score on some traditional layups, allowing these special finishes to be saved for the right spots. They are more difficult, particularly the scoop shots that can be from farther away than people realize. But right now, without his full explosiveness, McCain is reliant on the odd angles to get shots up around the rim without being blocked. It is why his finishing numbers are extremely poor.
Last season, McCain's unorthodox finishing style was a strong feature of his scoring arsenal. So far in his sophomore campaign, it has looked more like a bug.
MORE: Sixers sophomore stock watch
With the Sixers' frontcourt rotation decimated on Tuesday, the majority of Joel Embiid's minutes – and all of them from the four-minute mark of the second quarter through the final buzzer – came alongside another center. Embiid logged a brief stint alongside Andre Drummond – Sixers head coach Nick Nurse quipped after the game that the team's best offense at the time was Drummond rebounding missed shots – and then he played extended minutes next to Adem Bona.
What did Embiid think? His response was not exactly a ringing endorsement; Embiid seemed frustrated by the team's lack of three-point shooting.
"It was alright. Obviously, it's hard to judge because a lot of times I thought it looked pretty good, but we were also not able to take advantage," Embiid said. "...If you're not shooting well from three, it's hard to get the right spacing because the defense collapses on everything."
Embiid did his part in that he floated to the perimeter more often, even knocking down his very first corner triple of the season. He also connected with Bona on a pair of high-low lob assists:
Nearly all of Adem Bona's minutes in the Sixers' loss to Brooklyn on Tuesday came alongside Joel Embiid. Both of Bona's made baskets in the game were assisted by Embiid lob passes: pic.twitter.com/zcn44h7BYS
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) December 24, 2025
But Embiid does not exactly seem sold on all of this yet; he has been pleased with the Sixers' renewed focuses on athleticism and rebounding instead of maximizing floor spacing but perhaps felt this was a bridge too far. To be fair, though, Nurse largely stacked the Embiid-plus-Bona lineups with as much three-point shooting as possible. Perhaps this was just a one-game solution to a manpower deficiency. Time will tell.
"It was worth a try," Embiid said, "and if that's going to happen again, we just need to keep working on it."
MORE: Sixers signing MarJon Beauchamp to two-way deal, waiving rookie Hunter Sallis
Jabari Walker, starting in place of fellow two-way power forward Dominick Barlow on Tuesday, had a nightmarish shooting performance; both of his three-point attempts were airballs. But the 23-year-old bruiser has a skillset that is not remotely reliant on shot-making, which is not among his strengths.
Walker's single greatest strength is his knack for reviving possessions on the offensive glass. He is averaging a career-high 4.7 offensive rebounds per 100 possessions this season, and does a great job turning those into quick points:
Jabari Walker, always working on the offensive glass: pic.twitter.com/1aohybpAF6
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) December 24, 2025
It feels as if Walker's offensive rebounding numbers do a disservice to his ability on that front. Anecdotally, Walker seems to keep a possession alive without registering any statistics on plays like this one at least once every game:
Walker, whose physical defense on Dallas Mavericks phenom Cooper Flagg helped swing a game in the Sixers' favor over the weekend, has greatly benefited from being around the Sixers' veteran leaders after spending the first three years of his career on young teams in Portland.
"This is something I've asked for. I’ve heard about veteran leadership, but I've never really seen it to this extent," Walker said earlier this month. "So, just grateful to have [Andre Drummond], Eric Gordon, Kyle Lowry, Paul George, Joel, all these guys. Every day I feel like I could turn my brain off a little bit sometimes and just rely on them, and make life a lot easier. And then just picking up and learning from what they tell me, adding on my own spice to it, it’s very helpful."
But Walker, the son of a 10-year NBA veteran, is a pretty cerebral player himself. His prowess as an offensive rebounder is at least in part the product of his situational awareness and instincts in addition to strength and effort. One play he made to free up Embiid for an easy basket in the first half on Tuesday stood out quite a bit.
Walker sees Lowry struggling to find a lane to make his entry pass to Embiid, so he comes to the middle of the floor where he has an easy time leading Embiid to the basket with his pass:
This is a terrific read by Jabari Walker. The Sixers want to get the ball to Joel Embiid, but Brooklyn fronts him. It takes away Kyle Lowry's angle to make an entry pass, so Walker moves to the middle of the floor, where he can make a pass that takes Embiid right to the basket: pic.twitter.com/3Fu3ZwfsPj
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) December 24, 2025
"He just does everything," Embiid said. "Everything that I don't do at all time, whether it's offensive rebounding, playing hard, guarding one of the best offensive players on the other team. Rebounding, that's been one of the main things. So I think you need some of those guys to bring that energy. It just changes everything."
MORE: How and when will Barlow and Walker get converted to standard contracts?
